


A Small Secret

by Tofutti



Series: LU Creative Train (Extreme Track) [3]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:07:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26719549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tofutti/pseuds/Tofutti
Summary: Legend hated his pink hair. He hated the reminder of how vulnerable he was, how vulnerable he could be. He didn't know how to tell Warriors to stop teasing him, or how to tell Twilight to stop egging him on. All Legend knew was that Warriors could never find out how he got it, or he'd never hear the end of it.Linked Universe Creative Train (Extreme Track) Prompt: Sacrifice
Relationships: Legend & Twilight (Linked Universe), Legend & Warriors (Linked Universe)
Series: LU Creative Train (Extreme Track) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938148
Comments: 5
Kudos: 178





	A Small Secret

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who organized this event for the opportunity! I had a lot of fun.

“Hey, Pink.” Warriors ruffled Legend’s hair, sitting down next to him. “These looks too much for you? You look a little blushy.”

Legend groaned, swatting Warriors’ hand away and not even bothering to look in the other man’s direction. “I thought we were over this,” he said. “It’s already fading.”

“Sure.” Warriors ran his hand through the strands again. “Ah… so fluffy.”

Camp was quiet enough, sans Warriors’ teasing. Wild had sprained his wrist earlier that day pulling some stupid stunt; thus, it was Four who disappeared into the woods with Hyrule. Sky was asleep against a tree, even though the sun had only just started to set. Time sat next to him. It was hard to tell whether or not the old man was actually asleep. Wind sat next to Wild a ways away, almost on top of him. The youngest hero was swiping through the Sheikah Slate, a huge grin on his face. As Legend watched, Wind tapped something on the Slate and a blue orb, swirling with energy, appeared in Wind’s hands. Wild squawked, snatching the bomb - Legend was sure that’s what it was - away from him, tapping madly at the Slate until the explosive dissipated into blue strands.

It had already been a week since the incident with Twilight’s crystal. The heroes found themselves back in Wild’s Hyrule after stepping through another one of those portals. Despite what Legend said, the blond creeping in at the roots of his hair hadn’t made much progress. While he was always happy to engage in verbal sparring with Warriors, this particular avenue of antagonization was starting to grate on Legend. He had hoped for a quiet night. That was not to be, if judging by the grin on Warriors’ face - and, Legend noticed with a barely suppressed groan, Twilight’s. 

Twilight, who was sitting cross-legged from across camp. Twilight, who had an all-too-familiar glint in his eyes. Twilight, who Legend had been forced to trust with his secret. Legend fixed the other hero with a glare.  _ Not. A. Word. _

“Oh, Warriors, you know Legend isn’t  _ soft _ ,” Twilight called, and Legend grit his teeth.  _ Betrayal! _ “He’s a strong, proud creature!”

“You shut up!” Legend scowled. 

“Wow, listen to that growl.”

Warriors snorted. “Your nose is twitching, Leg,” he said, prompting a loud bark of laughter from Twilight. 

“Is the heat too much for you?” Warriors asked. “Where’s your usual bite?”

“I remember your teeth being a  _ little _ sharper than this. Come on, you’re not defenseless, are you?”

Legend squinted his eyes shut. That last comment was enough to flood his mind with images. One unearthed memory sent the rest toppling, and Legend stood abruptly. 

“Legend?” Warriors asked. “You okay?” 

Legend grit his teeth. “I need some air,” he choked out, storming into the forest, only barely hearing Warriors’ and Twilight’s concerned voices as they faded behind him.

As soon as the camp was out of view, Legend let out a strangled growl and kicked the stump of an undeserving oak. He  _ hated  _ the way his voice was choked and thick, the way his eyes prickled and stung and threatened to overflow. It was just some friendly ribbing. It shouldn’t have hurt like that. Legend had dished out worse.  _ It shouldn’t have hurt like that.  _ But it did. It did, when what they had been saying hit a little too close to what Legend had been trying to forget ever since he picked up Twilight’s cursed necklace.

_ The sky, a reddened bruise - the birds silent, wind garbled, glitching, screaming against his ears- _

Legend’s eyes flew open as he gasped. The forest was washed in  _ the unearthly light of the Dark World-  _ the light of the setting sun. He fixed his gaze on where the sunlight bled against the horizon.  _ It’s just the sunset,  _ he told himself.  _ It’s just evening. _

There was a cliff, its top peeking above the oaks, he noted absently. Legend suddenly felt, with scathing clarity, every inch  _ of sky above him. The echoes of an horrible shriek - claws sinking into the flesh at his shoulders as he tripped over his own feet, blood warm, sticky in his fur, the ground dropping out from underneath him, the wasteland swirling an eternity beneath him- _

Legend gasped. He stumbled to his feet from where he had collapsed at the foot of a tree, staring down at himself, digging his fingernails into his palms if only to convince himself that he still could. The tree’s branches spread out above him, but he could still see the darkening sky through the leafy canopy, could still  _ feel the pain piercing his back- _

Legend shook his head, his gaze landing once more on the clifftop nestled among the trees. The sight of the overhang felt like a breath of fresh air, and Legend pushed off from the oak and ran, trying his very best not to feel so small. 

* * *

Tentative footsteps broke Legend out of his trembling reverie. They were quiet, careful, close by. Legend was sweaty and everything was too bright and too sharp and the last thing he wanted was for someone to see him like this. His almost-hopes that he’d be confronted by some monster or another were dashed when he peeked up from his arms to see Twilight’s familiar boots standing a few feet away from the little nook under the cliff.

“...Legend?” Twilight said. His voice sounded funny. Muffled. Legend buried his face back into his arms; he knew he was red and splotchy and tearstained and he already felt the shame twisting in his stomach. “You okay?”

“What does it look like?” Legend snapped. His voice had no bite.

“Look, man…” It was Warriors.  _ Perfect. Just… perfect.  _ Legend bit his lip, squinting his eyes shut and forcing back another round of tears. His head was throbbing and aching. Everything still felt surreal and strange as once-repressed memories flickered behind his eyelids. “We’re… really sorry. We totally should have seen… that you weren’t having it today. That you weren’t okay.”

Legend burrowed his face further into his arms. Part of him wanted to shout, shout that yeah, they really should have, but the rest of him was too tired to care.

“Can we touch you?” Twilight asked, and Legend shrugged. 

“No,” he mumbled after a moment. No, definitely not, not when the memory of claws and agony and flight was still so close. 

Twilight settled in beside Legend. Warriors sat down on the other side.

“If it’s okay to talk about…” Warriors hedged, “what was it exactly that got you so worked up? So we don’t talk about it again.”

Legend’s stomach twisted. That was the last thing Warriors needed to know about. He cast about for some excuse, some denial, some scathing comeback, but found none. They always came so readily to his tongue. Why was it then that he could find no words? He was about to open his mouth and force something out, lest Warriors and Twilight worry more, when the sky exploded. 

It was as though the blast shattered Legend’s bubble of tearstained stagnance. Fire burst from the ceiling, rocks collapsing, the cliff caving in on itself. The sound of crashing, screaming rock was deafening. His face flared in pain, and then the world plunged into darkness.

Just as soon as the noise came, silence settled once more over the cave. For a moment, Legend was afraid that they had been sealed in entirely. Then, he spotted a single shaft of dim evening light, shining down on a pile of rocks. He pulled himself upright, wincing as his face throbbed. Reflexive tears rolled down his cheeks at the residual pain, more clouding his eyes. He must have been in the way of the collapsing rocks. 

“...Guys?” Legend croaked, then cringed at how awkward and stuffy he sounded. “Warriors? Twilight?”

“Legend!” It was Warriors, somewhere off to his left. A few seconds later, his face appeared, half-lit by the little pool of light. 

“Are you okay?” 

“A little banged up, but I’ll live,” Warriors said. “Are  _ you  _ okay? I mean, you sound horrible, but I’m pretty sure you sounded this bad before… that. What happened?”

“I dunno. Something blew up. I think I broke my nose... Twilight?” Legend crawled over to the light, squinting around at the little pocket of air left by the cave in. The area was rendered indistinct and fuzzy in the darkness. If Legend squinted, he could make out vague shapes. The crack to his left was small, two huge chunks of rock wedged together leaving a crack big enough for a housecat to squirm its way through. “Hey, Twilight?”

“Dude, Twi. Can you hear us? Where are you?”

The cave was silent. Legend and Warriors exchanged worried glances.

“Hey, Twi?” Legend called, hopeful against the voice that whispered horrible, horrible things in the back of his mind. “Twilight? Oh, Hylia.” He swallowed, ignoring the way his voice cracks. “Hold on, Twi. We’ll find you. Warriors? We’ve got to- do you have a lantern? A light? Anything?”

“My bag is back at camp.” 

“Mine too. Argh!” Legend slumped against the boulder at his side, digging his hands into his hair. “Hylia damn it!”

“So we can’t see…”

“Yeah, genius! No shit!”

“Let me finish. We can’t see. We’ll have to find him some other way. We just have to feel around for him.” 

Legend’s dry expression must have been visible even in the dim lighting, because Warriors raised an eyebrow. “Unless you have some magical artifact that will let you squeeze through a half-foot-wide crack?”

“I-” Legend deflated. “I do not. But...”

“But what?”

“Never mind.” Legend turned away. “Let’s just find him.” Legend ran his hands over the still-warm rubble filling the little cave, searching for something softer than the gravel that scraped its way over his callouses. His eyes strained against the dark. He winced. The shrapnel tore at his bare knees as he crawled along the wall.

“Oh, and by the way?” Warriors said. “You totally do have a broken nose. Your face is a mess.”

“You’re the only one who cares about how your face looks,” Legend growled, grateful for the distraction.

“Yeah, well it’s at least got to hurt, huh?”

“What do you think?” Then, Legend’s hand landed on something soft. Warm. Too squishy to be just another stone still warm from the explosion. 

_ Twilight. _

He felt his way up the other hero’s arm to his neck, his fingers catching on the thin string of a familiar necklace before finding Twilight’s artery. Legend sighed at the sensation of Twilight’s pulse under his fingertips.

“Warriors!” Legend called, his breath catching in his throat as his hands found Twilight’s shoulders underneath the rocks. “I found him, and he’s alive! Get over here and help me!”

“Where are you?”

“Follow my voice, idiot!”

A moment later, a calloused hand landed on the side of Legend’s face. His bruised cheekbone protested, twanging angrily. 

“Ah,” Warriors said, not moving his hand. “There you are.” 

Legend leaned away. “Should we risk moving him?”

“I don’t know…” Warriors hesitated. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

Legend grabbed Twilight’s shoulders. “Can you get his legs?”

“One step ahead of you. Here we go!”

Together, they hoisted Twilight out of the rubble and over to the light. 

Now that Twilight’s face was visible, Legend only felt worse. His skin was pale, eyes closed. Dark blood streaked its way down his forehead. Legend took a deep breath.  _ It’s okay. Head wounds always bleed a lot. _

“A concussion, you think?” Legend asked, ignoring the shaking in his voice, in his hands.

“Probably,” Warriors said, and dimly, Legend could see him checking Twilight over for any other injuries. Warriors paused at Twilight’s midsection, and Legend wasn’t sure he wanted to know. 

“Uh… Legend? Give me a hand with this, will you?”

“What?” Legend scrambled over to where Warriors knelt. Squinting in the faint light of dusk, Legend could barely make out Warriors holding his scarf to Twilight’s side. Already, the fabric was darkening with blood. The fact that Legend could see the blood at all had his palms slick, hot, sticky. 

“I could see the bone,” Warriors said, and his voice was shaking.

“Shit!” Legend got his arms underneath Twilight’s midsection, lifting him high enough for Warriors to wind his scarf tight around Twilight’s stomach. He tried not to imagine Twilight’s ribs, crunching under the weight of those rocks, tried not to imagine him gasping, wheezing, searching for breaths that wouldn’t come.

As Warriors finished the makeshift bandage off with a tight knot, Legend paced back and forth, his boots grinding through the rubble on the ground. He ran his hands through his hair, groaning in frustration. 

“Wild and Wind will notice we haven’t come back,” Warriors said, voice quiet.

“Oh, yeah? Will they?” Legend stopped his pacing to send a scathing glare in Warriors’ direction. Not that he could see it; it was only getting darker in the little cave. “Because they were totally expecting you back  _ immediately _ , and those two are  _ far  _ too attentive to get lost in their own shenanigans for hours on end.”

“Well, do you have any other plan?” Warriors tossed his hands up in frustration. “Dammit Legend, I’m trying to work with you here! It’s not like there’s anything else we can do! What, do you think we should dig ourselves out? That’s just liable to get us killed!”

“I- I-” Legend winced. “I don’t know.” His voice broke, and he shrunk in on himself, curling up on the ground. For the second time that evening, Legend felt very, very small. 

“...Me neither,” Warriors admitted. “All we can do is wait, though.”

Legend didn’t respond. His stomach twisted. He had seen the hole. It really wasn’t  _ that  _ big. He… he could fit, if he really wanted to. But whenever he thought of the crystal, glowing in all the shades of the sunset on the end of its string, Legend’s hands clenched, and his breath came in short gasps. He wanted to curl up on himself. He felt every inch of the sky above his head. Legend remembered, viscerally, what it was like to be so small, so soft, so defenseless, and he wanted to throw up. 

“...Right, Legend? There’s nothing else we can do?”

Legend couldn’t force out a response. He could hear Twilight’s teasing echoing in his head. Could practically feel Warriors’ barbed comments if he found out about Legend’s form. Remembered the  _ claws sinking into his back, lifting him out of the dying grasses and- _

“Legend?” Warriors said, breaking Legend out of his reverie.

Legend took a deep breath. “There is… one way for us to get out. For me to get out. I can…” He paused. “I can get the others. But you can’t tease me or I’ll haunt you for your whole life in whatever future you’re in. I don’t give a fuck if you’re on a different timeline. I’ll find you and haunt the fuck out of you.”

“Yeesh, okay. What is it? What can you do? Scratch that, just do it already! This place is starting to seriously freak me out, and Twi needs a potion.” 

“Alright.” Legend knelt down beside Twilght, feeling his way around the other hero’s neck until he found what he was looking for. He followed the string to its end, unearthing the crystal from beneath the folds of Twilight’s tunic and the layers of Warriors’ scarf. It glowed softly in the cave.

“Twilight’s necklace,” Warriors breathed. “What- what does it do?”

“It-” Legend stopped. “I was serious earlier. You can’t tell anyone about this, Captain.”

“Not a word,” he swore.

“Okay. As for what it does, you’d better see for yourself.”

Legend grabbed the Twilight Crystal, and the shadows coalesced. 

It never got easier. As his bones shifted, popped, turned molten and reformed under his shrinking skin, as the shadows burned at the edges of his consciousness, as Legend nearly lost himself, did lose himself, to the searing agony that flared across every inch, the blinding darkness that curled around his mind, he was only dimly aware that what little light there had been was gone as the edges of his transformation pushed at reality.

Then, it was done. Legend sighed as his bones settled into place.  _ Let’s get this over with. _

“...Legend?” Warriors asked, voice unsure, soft. “What was that?”

“I can fit through the hole now,” Legend said by way of explanation, and then demonstrated that fact, squeezing through the gap between the rocks. 

“...Okay.” Warriors peered through the hole after him. “Be quick. ...Are you… are you a rabbit?”

“Shut. Up.” Rabbits didn’t usually growl, but Legend pulled it off.

“I didn’t say anything!”

Trying to ignore the size of the world around him, the fact that he was suddenly so, so exposed, Legend ran.

* * *

Legend found Wind in the forest a ways away from the collapsed cliffside. He nearly collided with the boy’s shins as he sprinted through the forest, but barely skidded to a halt in time. Wind stumbled back with a shocked yelp. 

“ _ Wha-! _ ” His hand went to his sword. “Holy shit!”

“No, no, Wind, it’s just me!” Legend waved his paws in front of him. “Where the fuck did you learn language like that?”

Wind squinted. “...Legend?”

“Wow, you figured that out pretty fast.” Legend sat back on his haunches, crossing his forelegs. Of course he’d have to run into Wind before he could get his hands on the Master Sword. “Yeah, it’s me. What are you doing out here all alone?”

“Where are Warriors and Twilight? Why are you a rabbit? What happened? Did you get cursed? Are you okay? Are they okay?” Wind’s eyes were wide, his face pale. He was breathing fast, hard, and Legend was suddenly worried. 

“Woah, woah, kid, calm down!” Legend scampered up to him, putting a paw on his leg. “I’m fine! It’s not a curse, I can change back with the Master Sword. Warriors and Twilight are stuck. It’s a cave-in situation. I slipped out with this smaller form. Twilight needs help.”

“Oh, shit! Did you get caught in the explosion?” Wind buried his face in his hands. “Farore, I’m so sorry!”

“Wait- that was  _ you _ ?” 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Holy shit! I didn’t mean to, I swear. I guess it was a bomb arrow? I don’t know. I was just screwing around, and then it blew up, and then you guys didn’t come back, I had to come make sure-!”

“Wind! Calm down.” 

Wind stopped talking, staring at Legend in pale silence. 

“You got a health potion on you?”

Wind nodded silently. 

“Then Twilight will be fine. Follow me.” Then, almost as an afterthought: “Also, you’re getting the Master Sword for me. No one else hears about this, or I will sniff out all your deepest secrets and  _ destroy you _ .”

The threat was empty, but Wind didn’t need to know that.

* * *

“-and I didn’t mean to leave him unsupervised with explosives. Really! I just… I saw a Korok seed, and I knew I’d forget about it if I didn’t go get it, and he seemed to be fine, and he’s totally a hero too, but honestly that isn’t very significant considering my track record, and I really am sorry, and-”

“Wild.” Legend cut him off with a tired smile, too exhausted to be vindictive. “It’s okay. Really.”

“Really? Because if I can make it up-”

“You can make it up to us if you stop barfing apologies all over the place and go make dinner,” Legend said. “I’m hungry.”

“Uh-” Wild rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Yeah. Heh.”

Across camp, Twilight was getting his head wrapped by Time. Wind sat next to him, snuggled up against the older hero’s side. He looked a little less ill with guilt than he had earlier, so Legend took that as a good sign.  _ I’m glad they talked it out,  _ he thought to himself.

As Wild left to start the fire, Warriors sat down next to Legend, and he groaned internally. 

_ Oh, no. He’s gonna make me talk it out. _

“So,” Warriors said. 

“So,” Legend replied.

“What…” He hesitated. “What was that?”

“A secret,” Legend snapped.

Warriors held up his hands. “I swear, I won’t tell anyone.”

“Good.”

“Is…” Warriors grimaced. “Is…  _ that _ why you were so upset earlier?”

Legend scowled, hunching in on himself. There was a moment where they sat in silence. Legend braced himself. “It was horrible the first time,” he whispered. “You… you can’t hold a sword like that.”

Warriors said nothing. He laid a hand on Legend’s back. His warm, calloused fingers were resting right where Legend knew he bore a series of nasty puncture scars. This time, Legend realized, it was okay. Somehow. He knew this…  _ brother  _ of his had his back. 

It was okay.


End file.
